For the area of Leeds, see Lincoln Green

Lincoln Green

Lincoln Green is an area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The area is mainly residential with a small local shopping centre. The area also has public houses and a working men's club . Most housing in Lincoln Green is council owned high rise flats, these are in a significantly worse condition then...

.

Lincoln green is the color of dyed woollen cloth associated with Robin Hood

Robin Hood

Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....

 and his merry men in Sherwood Forest

Sherwood Forest

Sherwood Forest is a Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, that is famous through its historical association with the legend of Robin Hood. Continuously forested since the end of the Ice Age, Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve today encompasses 423 hectares surrounding the village of...

, Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

. The dyers of Lincoln

Lincoln, Lincolnshire

Lincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of 85,595; the 2001 census gave the entire area of Lincoln a population of 120,779....

, a cloth town in the high Middle Ages

High Middle Ages

The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....

, produced the cloth by dyeing it with woad (Isatis tinctoria)

Woad

Isatis tinctoria, with Woad as the common name, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is commonly called dyer's woad, and sometimes incorrectly listed as Isatis indigotica . It is occasionally known as Asp of Jerusalem...

 to give it a strong blue, then overdyeing it yellow with weld (Reseda luteola) or dyers' broom, Genista tinctoria

Genista tinctoria

Genista tinctoria, with common names: Dyer's Broom, Dyer’s Greenweed, Dyer's Whin, Furze, Greenbroom, Greenweed, Waxen Woad, Woad Waxen and Waxen Wood, is a plant species of the genus Genista.-Description:...

. "Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

 blue" and "Kendall green" were also colours linked with the dyers of English towns.

The color is a deep warm olive green.

The first recorded use of Lincoln green as a color name in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 was in 1510.

By the late sixteenth century, Lincoln green was a thing of the past, for Michael Drayton

Michael Drayton

Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era.-Early life:He was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothing is known about his early life, beyond the fact that in 1580 he was in the service of Thomas Goodere of Collingham,...

 provided a sidenote in his Poly-Olbion

Poly-Olbion

The Poly-Olbion is a topographical poem describing England and Wales. Written by Michael Drayton and published in 1612, it was reprinted with a second part in 1622. Drayton had been working on the project since at least 1598.-Content:...

(published 1612): "Lincoln anciently dyed the best green in England." Cloth of Lincoln green was more pleasing than undyed shepherd's gray cloth: "When they were clothed in Lyncolne grene they kest away their
gray", according to A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode, ca 1510, and Lincoln green betokened an old-fashioned forester even in the fancy dress of Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...

's The Faery Queene:

"All in a woodman's jacket he was clad

of Lincolne Greene, belay'd with silver lace."

The popular ballad printed in the eighteenth-century compilations Robin Hood's Garland offers an unexpected picture of Robin as he presented himself at court:

He cloathed his men in Lincoln green

And himself in scarlet red"

The distinction was in the cost of scarlet, which was dyed with kermes

Kermes (dye)

Kermes is a red dye derived from the dried bodies the females of a scale insect in the genus Kermes, primarily Kermes vermilio. The insects live on the sap of certain trees, especially Kermes oak tree near the Mediterranean region...

, derived from an insect native to the Mediterranean. Lincoln scarlet, from its imported dyestuff

Dye

A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....

, was more expensive than Lincoln green. In 1198 the Sheriff of Lincoln bought ninety ell

Ell

An ell , is a unit of measurement, approximating the length of a man's arm.Several national forms existed, with different lengths, includingthe Scottish ell ,the Flemish ell ,the French ell...

s (about 112 yards) of scarlet cloth for £30; although the cloth was a finely finished fabric, its high price was almost certainly due mainly to the extremely costly dye-stuff, greyne (graine) from Kermes or scarlet grain. In 1182 the Sheriff of Lincoln bought Scarlet at 6s 8d/ell, Green and Blanchet both at 3s/ell and Gray at approximately 1s 8d/ell. By 1216 three guild

Guild

A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...

s controlling the cloth trade were established in Lincoln, the Weavers', Dyers', and Fullers' guilds.